THE COVERING CAST!

Today we start a 21 days Revival Meeting on BONDAGE and DELIVERANCE. Many Christians today are not enjoying what Christ died to give them because they are bound one way or the other. Such Christians are said to be in bondage, and until they are free from this bondage, they will never be able to obtain God’s best for their lives on this earth. Such Christians are said to be in bondage to the devil.

What is bondage?

a) Bondage is slavery or involuntary servitude (compulsory service or labour as a punishment for a criminal).

b) Bondage is the state of being bound by or subjected to some external power or control.

c) Bondage is the state or practice of being physically restrained, as being tied up, chained or put in handcuffs.

For instance, the Bible calls sickness: 

1. BONDAGE. “And ought not this woman, whom Satan had bound these 18 years be loosed from this BOND?” (Lk. 13:16) 

2. CAPTIVITY. “And the Lord turned the CAPTIVITY of Job when he prayed...” (Job 42:10). 

The Lord is the one that delivers from captivity (Ps. 126:1-4; Isa. 49:24-26). But it is Satan that brings a person into captivity (Isa. 61:1-3).

3. OPPRESSION. “How God anointed Jesus Christ of Nazareth with Holy Ghost and with power, Who went about doing good healing all that were OPPRESSED of the devil...” (Acts 10:38).

This implies that bondage, captivity and satanic oppression are the same. 

How do Christians become captives of the devil? Christians become captives of the devil through lack of knowledge (ignorance).

In Isaiah 5:13 God said, “Therefore, My people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.”

In Hosea 4:6 God said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”

How do Christians become free from the bondage of Satan? In John 8:32 Jesus said, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall MAKE you free.”

In John 8:36 Jesus said, “If the Son therefore, shall MAKE you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

Now let’s use Lazarus in John 11 as a case study: In John 11:40-44 Jesus said unto Martha, “Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?

41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up His eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard Me.

42 And I know that thou hearest Me always: but because of the people which standby I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent Me.

43 And when He thus had spoken, He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

44 And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.”

Notice that though Lazarus has been called back to life, he was totally bound. If you are Born Again you are a seed of Abraham, and an heir to the promise of God’s blessing (Gal. 3:29). And if you are a seed of Abraham, then the blessing is upon your life. You have automatically moved from curse to blessing. You are not going to be (get) blessed, because God says that you are already blessed.

Ephesians 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.”

2 Peter 1:3 says, “According as His divine power hath given unto us ALL THINGS that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue.”

But, until the enemy (the source of your problem) is dealt with in your life, there will be no free flow of God’s blessings to you. You will see the will of God for your life, but between you and that promise is a mighty obstacle. This is a covering cast put there by the devil to stop you from getting what Christ died to obtain for you. This “covering cast” shall be destroyed in your life today, in the name of Jesus. 

What is a covering cast? It is that which is responsible for all the setbacks (hindrances) you may be experiencing right now in your life. It is a mark of disfavour that the devil has placed on you so as to frustrate you out of God’s blessings. When the devil gains entry into your life, he injects poison into you. This poison is the covering cast. Its effects include hindrances of various types, sicknesses, failures etc.

When Lazarus came back to life Jesus said, “Loose him, let him go.” In the same way, there are a lot of things happening in your life today that you do not have any idea of how they came upon you. Even the doctors cannot help you. They can’t because your problem is not physical but spiritual and as such it can only be handled spiritually. 

Look at some of such puzzles in life:

• • Why is it that in a school of many students, some are succeeding without much effort, but others struggle so hard only to fail at the end? There is nothing wrong with the school. There is nothing wrong with the teachers. This is an error!

• • Why is it that two people with the same kind of business may be in the same market, one is making so much money that he is buying assorted kinds of vehicles and building houses while the other person is borrowing and borrowing? No one comes to buy from him. Every investment made is shipwrecked. There is nothing wrong with the market. There is nothing wrong with your line of business. This is an error!

• • Why is it that in a situation where there are two ladies, one is really charming, charismatic, elegant, figure eight, and well behaved, but no one is saying how far? The other lady is actually ugly, with K-legs, with the figure of a man, as round as a football, with very broad chest, big burst and tiny hips. But people quickly come and marry her leaving the one that is really beautiful and charming. Why? It ought to have been the other way round. This is an error!

• • Why is it that you have very rich relations but no one is responding to your needs? They ignore you and instead they help outsiders. That is a mark of disfavour. It is a covering cast. This is an error!

• • Why is it that you experience repeated, periodic, or chronic sickness or weakness of the body not necessarily due to hard work during the day? This is an error!

• • Why is it that your daughters or sisters marry, divorce, and come back home to stay?

• • Why is it that your marriage is broken down and you are divorced or separated? In reality your marriage is not fulfilling the things you expect in marriage? Your spouse nauseates you right now.

• • Why is it that you experience continual financial insufficiency in spite of your sufficient income? You do pay your tithes, give offerings and support the work of God, yet you suffer from severe lack. Why?

• • Why is it that you do experience accidents often?

• • Why is your family plagued with mental illness, suicide, alcoholism, incest, divorce, abject poverty and premature deaths?

• • Why is it that you do experience disturbed sleep at night? You experience nightmares!

• • Why is it that you have a chronic ailment that does not respond to medical treatment or prayer?

• • Why is it that you experience reaching a certain level of achievement in life, and have all the required qualifications for success, yet something you can’t explain goes wrong somewhere and you start all over again? You experience this in your business, studies, career, personal relationship with people, finance and even health.

• • Why is it that your family is strife-torn?

• • Why it is that in spite of your beauty, education and lucrative placement, no one agrees to marry you?

• • Why is it that you do have repeated failures in engagement, marriages, academics and career?

• • Why is it that things don’t just go well with you no matter how hard you try? You experience setbacks in your life pursuits.

• • Why do people in your family die prematurely no matter how well they feed or how medically well maintained they are?

• • Why is it that your situation has remained the same in spite of the fact that you have cried, waited on the Lord, studied the Word of God, memorized the Word of God, confessed the Word of God, and you have prayed even in the Holy Ghost? 

But I have Good News for you. In John 10:10 Jesus said, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

God said, “Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?

25 But thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.

26 And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob” (Isa. 49:24-26).

Jesus said, “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me (1) to preach the Gospel to the poor; (2) He hath sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, (3) to preach deliverance to the captives, and (4) recovering of sight to the blind, (5) to set at liberty them that are bruised, (6)19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord” (Lk. 4:18-19).

Beloved, why then suffer and die in silence? Know this: once the spiritual power behind a particular problem in your life is located and dealt with, the physical signs will naturally disappear. When you remove the spider, there will be no more cobwebs.

In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus has given an open invitation to all saying, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”

Acts 4:12 says, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we MUST be saved.”

1 Timothy 2:5-6 says, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 6 Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”

The desire of heaven is to ensure your full liberty. God will destroy, upon this mountain, all the covering casts, all the marks of disfavor that have been hindering you from possessing those things that rightfully belong to you in Christ. 

Prayers:

Father, I command every covering cast in my life to be destroyed right now, in Jesus’ name.

Watch out for the next edition of Good News from the Pulpit! 

Your friend, I. I. MADUBUNYI (Head Pastor) 18.11.2019